UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Paul Nuttall has rejected police figures showing a spike in the number of reported racist attacks following the Brexit vote, arguing the stats have been “overblown” by Remain campaigners.

In an interview with the Independent, Nuttall refused to accept proof that attacks on religious and ethnic minorities had soared since the EU referendum.

A further 31 police forces reported that more than 1,500 offenses relating to the victim’s race or religion had been recorded in the two weeks up to and including the day of the referendum, June 23. In the two weeks following the vote that number grew to 2,241.

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“What the police said is there tends to be a rise in these types of crime after any national event and then it tails off. I’m not sure I buy into [the rise in hate crimes],” he said.

“Of course there will be individual instances and people should never be victims of hate crime at all. I’ve said this in the chamber in the European Parliament, my heart goes out to those people who have been victims, but I think a lot of this has been overblown specifically to try to rubbish Brexit.”

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“We call on those such as Mr Nuttall to be part of the solution, rather than the problem, and halt the slew of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant slurs coming out from his party and its representatives,” a spokesperson for the group said.